Finding the Season
by Dragonfire707
Summary: When Relena finds herself caring for two kids over Christmas, what begins as holiday insanity becomes something much more: because four souls have been brought together this season to bring two people, lost outside in the snow, together at last.
1. Tidings

**AN: Well, here I am. I know, I know, I've been MIA pretty much all summer, but I'm not going to waste your time with excuses I know you don't want to hear. Suffice it to say this: Opportunity will get done. It's written, it just needs to be edited. It will be updated. And my many apologies, especially to Lauren Maxwell.:)**

**So what is this? Well…my distraction, I should say. The reason Opportunity _and_ Incog haven't been updated. I started it last November for Nanowrimo, and all of a sudden it just sort of flew off the handle and I couldn't stop writing. It's a lot more lighthearted and comedic than anything I've written lately, and I really love it.**

**I should warn you…it takes place in December, and yes, it's about Christmas. I know that's really out of season, but I felt so bad about not updating I figured I should post _something_ in excuse for my absence. I hope people won't be put off by the holiday theme, since it is summer…but hey, what's the harm in a little Christmas in July? ;)**

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**Finding the Season  
**By Dragonfire

**Chapter 1: Tidings**

The dark hallways of the Preventers Headquarters were silent this morning; the guards on duty were each in their respective rooms, glued to security monitors or computer screens. The bulletproof windows were still pitch black; it would be at least another two hours before dawn.

Up in the front lobby, a bell dinged quietly in the silence. The night shift was just ending, and new guards were taking over. Two young cadets stood yawning at the front desk, watching through bleary eyes as the receptionist fed their ID cards through a softly whirring machine.

"Can't believe the shift starts at three-thirty in the morning," one muttered, groaning.

"I _hate_ this job," his companion agreed, rubbing at his eyes.

"I mean, it pays well, but - "

"But where's the fun in sitting around all day scribbling coordinates and waiting for something exciting to happen?"

The first cadet snorted. "And it never will, considering we work under Mr. Boredom himself."

"Ah! Don't get me started. What kind of absolute imbecile would turn down six promotions, an eighty-thousand-dollar pay raise, and, the very worst - "

This was in unison:

"A jet black Speedway convertible!"

"Free, no less!"

"Zero to _blur_ in five point four seconds flat - "

"The _perfect_ way to pick up chicks!"

"So tell me, _please_, why the heck that idiot turned it down?"

A deep voice sounded behind them, just low enough for the two cadets to hear.

"Perhaps he doesn't _need_ a car to 'pick up chicks.'"

The cadets went ramrod stiff. Icy fingers skipped down their spines as their boss, all six-foot-five, pure muscle of him stepped around to face them.

"Oh shit," one mumbled under his breath.

The other scrambled to attempt a stammered reply: "W-we, uh…well, you see, Lieutenant…"

"We were simply implying that you would look positively dashing in the car, sir," covered the first.

Ice hard Prussian-blue eyes glared the cadet down. "Save your breath, Peterson. You're going to need it to explain your tardiness this morning." He turned back to the receptionist, took his ID card, and strode briskly off.

Sighing, the two cadets took their own cards and headed toward the elevators in the opposite direction.

"Unbelievable," the cadet named James Peterson mumbled.

His partner, a redhead called Austin Carnes, said sadly, "Didn't realize we were that late."

Peterson glanced up at the clock on the wall and grimaced. "Three forty-seven on the dot," he muttered. "How the heck can he _be_ that punctual?"

"Easy," muttered Carnes sullenly. "He's a robot."

-----------------------------------

The watch on Heero Yuy's wrist actually read three-forty-five exactly, meaning he was running a full sixty seconds ahead of schedule today. At the minute he was already in his office, seated at his desk, reading over the night's security reports from the Peacecraft mansion. All seemed to be in good order; he read them again. And once more. When he was finally finished, he carefully filed the folder away, and promptly opened the next.

After scrutinizing the contents, the dark-haired lieutenant stood and crossed to a PA speaker on the wall. It was only thirty seconds after voicing his request that a knock sounded lazily on his door.

"Enter," he barked.

The door swung open, then shut. The newcomer crossed the room slowly, then sank into an armchair in the corner.

"Y'know," Duo Maxwell muttered, "I can't understand how you get up this early…or why you bother with briefings in the morning anyways, I never remember what you say…"

Heero glared at the man in the chair, who was toying, half-asleep, with his thick, chestnut-brown braid. "Which is exactly why," he drawled, "I'm bringing Trowa in on this one."

As if one cue, the door opened again, and in strode a very solemn, very serious man. He took a seat, turned to Heero, and murmured, "What do we have?"

The man with the braid heaved a sigh and tried to fall asleep.

"Terrorist threat," Heero said shortly. He spread the contents of his folder on his desk, for Trowa's alert eyes to take note of. "We know who, we just don't know where."

The other soldier studied the map Heero had set on the table. "That's…three - no, four possible detonation points?"

"Right. Two are factories, one is an apartment building, and the last is a hospital."

"Where are they located?"

There was a loud snore from somewhere in Duo's armchair. Both of the other men didn't even blink.

"The two factories are downtown, the apartments on 16th and Sossaman, and the hospital is Currington General, on Broadway and Power - about an hour away from here."

Trowa gave a single nod. "I see. You believe they will choose one of the factories."

"I'm fairly certain the hospital and apartments are decoys."

"I agree. Are we posting teams to divert the attacks?"

"Yes. I trust you to handle that."

"Not a problem."

Heero stood, and Trowa followed suit. Duo continued snoring. "I think," Heero said, nodding once to the man opposite him, "that it'll be routine. Simplistic."

A ghost of a smile flickered across Trowa's mouth. Heero, in his own subtle way, was telling him to take his time, something Trowa was grateful for. As a father of two, time was something Trowa struggled to obtain these days.

"Thank you," he said, and then in one fluid, elegant movement, pulled a rather awake Duo from his chair, dragging him to the door.

"Have the report on my desk by eight tonight," Heero said as he shut the door behind them. "And Duo, work on your acting."

Duo stuck his tongue out at the door as Trowa led him down the hallway. "Jeez," he muttered, "such a stiff. Why do we take orders from him again?"

"Because if he hadn't turned down six promotions, he would be heading the whole force now. He's the only leader I would really trust in this entire building."

Duo trudged after his partner, sighing. "Makes me wonder. Back when we were flying Gundams he wouldn't have taken a second thought at the opportunity to give more orders. Wonder what happened?"

Trowa knew exactly what had happened, but explaining it to Duo - especially when Braid Boy's brain hadn't been activated by the usual four cups of coffee yet - would take entirely too much energy.

-------------------------------------

After briefing the two other pilots, Heero took a moment to breathe, and leaned his forehead against the door. Today's work would be the usual - security, bodyguarding - but it didn't matter. Before leaving the safety of this office, the headquarters, he always had to stop and prepare himself for another day spent guarding the one person it nearly killed him to be close to.

The discovered terrorist plans were near the back of his mind somewhere; he knew it would be taken care of effortlessly, the report neatly typed and placed on his desk exactly on time, and the week would progress as normal. Another week…with her.

He took two more deep breaths, then picked up his briefcase and exited the room. He didn't have to look at his watch - he knew he was exactly on schedule.

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Somewhere, there was an irritating noise. And it was extremely irritating, and it would not shut up. Relena flung a hand out into the darkness, rummaging around in the mess that was her nightstand while burying her face deeper into the pillow. Finally, her fingers found what they were looking for. She pulled back and then chucked the annoyance as far as she could throw it…

…and Pagan, the butler, ducked as yet another alarm clock went sailing over his head as he entered the Vice Foreign Minister's room.

"Good morning, Miss Relena."

Buried amidst the covers and numerous pillows on her bed, Relena gave an incoherent mumble.

Pagan glanced fondly at the golden hair spread every which-way on the pillows, and laughed to himself as he opened the windows.

Soft early-morning light spilled into the room onto Relena's bed, and from somewhere in the bed came: "What time is it?"

Glancing out the hallway, where the remains of the unfortunate alarm clock were scattered across the hallway, the butler said wryly, "Five forty-three a minute ago, miss."

"What!" She sat up like lightning, whirling around to face him, the golden hair in complete disarray. "Are you sure?"

"Trust me," the butler returned dryly. "I'm sure."

There was a shriek, and when Pagan turned, the bathroom door was just closing. "Pagan!" she cried. "I slept in again!"

The elderly butler chuckled as he heard the shower come on at the same time as the plugging and unplugging of various hair devices, and the water running in the sink. Though the Vice Foreign Minister was twenty-seven now, some mornings he felt as if he were tending to a teenager.

It wasn't, he decided as he bent to pick up the pieces of the demolished clock, such a bad thing. Not every person gets to have a clock chucked at him by one of the highest governing officials alive. You just had to learn how to duck.

-------------------------------------

Clothes flew over her head as Relena tore through her closet, ripping blouses off the hangers. "Of all days to be late…" she muttered as she finally grabbed a light blue button-down, threw it on, and straightened the matching skirt, freshly ironed (thanks to Pagan, about two minutes prior). Hopping across the room on one foot as she tried to shove the other into an elegant high-heeled shoe, Relena used her one free hand to twist her hair into what she prayed was a passing excuse for a sophisticated twist.

"Oh please, oh please," she breathed, finally getting the shoes on and managing to keep the hair in one place. Next she flew through the mess on the nightstand again, throwing miscellaneous items into her purse and hoping they were being thrown where they were needed.

A knock came at the door.

"Relena?"

"_Crap_!" she hissed, giving herself a hasty glance in the mirror, yanking her cell phone from its charger, and finally throwing open the door.

And there he was, leaning against the wall in the hallway, looking as terribly professional, collected, and devastatingly handsome as he always did…every minute of every day…regardless of the situation…

Inwardly, she sighed. Outwardly, she straightened her posture, looking him straight in the eye, and said calmly, "Good morning, Mr. Yuy."

Without waiting for a reply, she started down the hall, trying as hard as she could to look refined and keep her breathing steady. But there weren't footsteps following her - she turned.

He was still against the wall, watching her with one eyebrow raised.

"What?"

"You might," he drawled in his monotone, "want to wear shoes that match."

The blush was rising to her cheeks even before she glanced down and realized that she had one elegant Manolo heel of dark blue on her right foot, and one shoe of vivid orange, employed once for a costume party at the Maxwell's, on her left.

_Don't look at him, don't look at him…_ Trying to keep her head high, she turned and went inside the room again, corrected the problem at hand (or foot), and exited. He hadn't moved from his spot against the wall.

This time, as she started down the hall, he was right behind her. As they stepped into the elevator, out of the corner of her eye she saw him glance at his watch.

"Right on schedule," he murmured.

She didn't say anything, just stared in mortification at the elevator doors and begged them to open.

His face expressionless, Heero turned calmly to the servant girl next to him and remarked, "It's a good thing I allow time for wardrobe malfunctions."

_Just kill me now_.

-------------------------------------

Staring out the window of the limousine as they made their careful way to the downtown area, Relena was blind to the soft images of falling snow and Christmas decorations as she lamented mentally about the bodyguard sitting alertly on the other side of the car.

Why did she always feel as if he could strip her of every ounce of poise she had, revealing the vulnerable, clumsy girl she really was? Why could she walk into a room full of the most powerful people alive and be the very picture of grace, of confidence, but he could look at her just once with those deep blue eyes and reduced her to a puddle? He _shouldn't_ have that effect on her, she chided herself. He was only her bodyguard, after all.

She sighed and leaned her head back against the seat cushion. The man sitting just four feet away had no idea how much agony he caused her. The scent of his aftershave, masculine and protective, wafted slyly around the car interior, teasing her nose and alerting her to the fact that he was so close - and so far away. She could give an accurate estimate on how many people today would hint to her about how she needed a boyfriend, start to set her up on some date - and always, his strong, clean smell would enter her mind and extirpate any possibilities of a date with anybody else in the world.

Sighing yet again, Relena turned to gaze out the window, tried to force him from her mind. Her heart was aching…a kind of hurt that no Christmas gift, no amount of days given for vacation, and no sweetly swung Christmas carol could comfort. Her family, so dear to her, could do nothing for this particular wound; no one could, except for a very silent soldier who gave her nothing during the day except her updated security password.

Heero deserved credit, he really did; because of his security work, there hadn't been an assassination attempt since he entered the Preventers force and was assigned to be her bodyguard. Not so much as a stray cat had touched her windowsill, and the only people allowed on her front porch were those who had passed through an exhausting line of checkpoints. He was so thorough, the security so complete, that _he_ had to open her office in the morning for her.

She had to grin at that. At least, with his meticulous punctuality, he was always at the office right before she pulled up.

Relena felt herself relaxing a little bit; focusing more on the connections she _did _have with him was a lot more cheerful than wishing for something she could never have. Finally, she relaxed and looked outside again. It was such a beautiful time of the year; even this early in the morning, people were outside, smiling, playing in the newly-fallen snow. And she was sitting there, inside a limousine, awaiting nothing but another long day of meetings. No variations, no excitement, no change…

Gazing wistfully at the snow, she suddenly smiled.

She could change that. Maybe just a little bit, but it was all she needed.

"Stop!"

Heero jolted to what was going on inside the limousine; he had been absolutely engrossed in studying everything passing by, but at the sound of her lilting voice, he tore his eyes from the window.

"What?"

Relena was rapping on the thin Plexiglas separating them and the driver, Steve. He looked in the rearview mirror, bewildered. Heero felt the same way, though of course you'd never be able to tell.

"Steve! Stop the car!"

"What - " Heero began, but as the limousine pulled over to the curb and Relena's hand went to the door handle, he stopped and decided the first mission objective was merely pursuit.

Relena stepped out of the car and immediately felt a hundred times better. She _loved_ winter, loved the snow, loved the crisp bite in the air that made a person think of sledding and ski lodges and hot chocolate and fireplaces. Allowing herself to smile at the snowflakes cheerfully greeting her good morning, she set off down the sidewalk.

Heero had to jog slightly to keep up with her, zipping up his Preventers jacket as he did so. "What are we doing?" he hissed as he rubbed his hands together. It felt like minus twenty degrees outside. He zipped the jacket tighter, and then looked over at her for an answer.

She was grinning, spinning around at random intervals, sticking her tongue out to catch snowflakes like a little girl at recess. Her dark red, heavy knit coat only accented her wheat-colored hair and the rose staining her cheeks from the cold. Her breath rose, misty, in the morning air as she laughed into the falling snow.

"Relena. We're going to get off schedule."

She laughed again, pausing slightly to look into the window of a little shop on the corner of the street, where a tiny Santa made of porcelain gently rubbed down his favorite reindeer. Rudolph's red nose reflected the early-morning sun, causing little red patterns of lights to dance across her face. "Look, Heero!"

Glancing at his watch, Heero tried to bury himself deeper into his coat.

"Look how tiny they are…" she turned, smiling, saw him look at the time, and lost the smile. Walking again, silent now, she shoved her hands into her pockets and studied the snow-covered pavement as they walked together towards the Senate building.

And for some odd reason that he couldn't fathom, Heero found himself missing her laughter, the sparkle of winter in her sapphire eyes…but he didn't know why, and even worse, didn't know how to get it back.

-------------------------------------

The council doors opened, and a stream of voices flooded the wide hallway. Heero turned; the meeting was finished, right on schedule, and they would make it to Relena's office in perfect timing. He watched as the government leaders - most of them elderly men - strode out of the council room, and there, in the middle of them, was the beautiful, elegant former Princess, laughing and talking while managing to be effortlessly poised and in control at the same time.

His heart twisted, and he turned away.

Presently, her footsteps sounded behind him, and he followed her to the limousine. Deciding to make an effort, Heero said gruffly, "How'd it go?"

Relena gave him nothing but a quick glance over her shoulder and a light, "Ended on time. Good thing we're still on schedule. I was _so_ worried."

Heero paused just momentarily, studying her back as she moved outside into the winter morning. Was she...making fun of him?

Why was she the one thing he could never figure out?

-------------------------------------

_Ahh, Christmas_. The thought sprang to her mind unbidden, and the corners of her mouth twitched involuntarily into a smile. She loved Christmas so much; everything about it, from the decorations to the caroling. Lately, it had been a little more difficult to get through, but ever since her brother and his wife had invited her to spend Christmas Eve at their house, in order to be with friends on Christmas morning, her favorite holiday was much more bearable. Before, when her brother was still single and often away at work…Relena shuddered. Those were memories she would rather live without. Being alone on Christmas was more painful that most kinds of physical wounds - and she knew that from experience. Mostly, it was -

"Holy - "

The driver burst into a string of expletives, and the limo jerked violently to one side. Relena, who had been perched on the edge of her seat, was thrown forcefully to her right, straight into Heero, as the limousine swerved up and onto the sidewalk, narrowly missing a light pole decorated with Christmas garlands.

"What the…" she heard Heero say. As the car came to an abrupt halt, Relena realized that she and Heero had landed on the floor, with his back up against the door and her body up against him. Somewhere in her mind, something was nagging that this was highly improper, but there was something else that was screaming louder yet, and she recognized it as the part of her that shivered anytime he came near. A jolt shot through her body, something akin to electricity, energized by his touch and spurred on by the mingling senses of his masculine scent and the way his breath seemed ragged in her ear. For a brief second he seemed frozen - had he felt -

Heero reached up, opened the door, and exited the car.

Relena followed, her heart settling back into its usual dejected, lonely little cave.

But the minute she saw what had taken place in the intersection, all thoughts of loneliness flew from her mind.

The car just in front of them had run head-on into a truck heading the opposite direction; both had still been going at fairly high speeds, and from the look of it, things were bad. The car had spun off to the left, where it had crashed sideways into a light pole and stopped, but the truck, about a hundred yards away, was upside down and on fire.

"Take care of the two in the car," muttered a voice in her ear - a voice that sent a million tiny fingers of ice dancing down her spine. "I'm going to help the one in the truck."

Relena left him and ran over to the car. It didn't look too bad; it seemed as though the truck had hit the corner of the bumper, sending the car spinning across the intersection. Praying, Relena reached the passenger window and looked inside.

A woman was clutching her arm, looking at her with frantic green eyes. "Oh my God," she cried, "we just got hit!"

"Yes, I know," Relena said, speaking as calmly and evenly as she could. "Everything is all right. Can you tell me if you have any pain in your neck or back?"

The woman paused momentarily before saying shakily, "No…but I - I think my arm is broken…I reached out - "

The man sitting in the driver's seat caught Relena's attention; he was holding his hands to his head, blood dripping down steadily between her fingers.

"Sir? Are you all right?"

He looked at her, and miraculously, gave a small, shaky smile. "Head wounds - bleed more than anywhere else, right?"

They were okay. A smile of relief blossomed on Relena's face. "Yes, you're right. Let's get you out of this car and to the nearest hospital."

While she helped them exit and watched for any other injuries, Relena flagged down a taxi that had stopped to gawk. "Can you take these people to the nearest hospital?" she said to the driver, who was staring at her in amazement.

"Relena Peacecraft, that's who you are!" he said with a thick accent, giving her a gap-toothed grin. Ignoring him, she helped the man and woman into the car and gave them a reassuring smile.

"I - I dunno the neares' hospital," the driver said apologetically, still gawking.

Relena straightened, glanced at the street signs. There were two hospitals nearby, St. Peter's and Currington General. Peter's was close; Currington was farther away but there'd be less traffic…

The driver, and injured couple, were watching her. Suddenly, time seemed to freeze.

_These people are in your hands._

The thought came from nowhere. Relena stared, startled, and very slowly, a thick, ominous cloud of foreboding settled over her heart.

Somehow, she knew her next words would be some of the most important in her life.

_Peter's or Currington?_

_What does it matter? They're both hospitals…_

"Um…"

The driver glanced at her quizzically. "Ain't you the Vice Foreign Minister? Don't ya know yer own - "

"Currington," Relena bit back, offended. "Currington General. Broadway and Power. Get these people there right away."

He saluted and hit the gas.

_Was that the right thing to say?_

Relena, unsettled, turned to find Heero. He was speaking on his cell phone about ten feet away from the flaming truck, where a few people had crowded around to pull the single passenger to safety. Slipping a little on the ice, Relena ran across the street.

He saw her coming, and said quickly, "Did you send them to a hospital?"

"Yeah, they were - "

Heero jerked back, as if something the person on the other side of the conversation had offended him. "What the hell do you mean, impossible? There has been an _accident_ - "

He stopped, listening, and glanced at Relena. "Which one?" he mouthed.

"Uh, Curring - "

"_What?_!" Heero barked into the phone. "No, I don't care how you do it, but you get people down here and you get them _now_."

He snapped the phone shut, then said bluntly, "Get back in the limo, I don't want something to happen to you while I help out here."

Offended, Relena started, "I'll help - "

"No," he snapped. "Just get in the limo. You're not needed."

In any other situation, Relena would have snapped at him, but that feeling of foreboding was still there, and so she slowly turned and retreated to the safety of the limo…feeling that somehow, something was not right.

-------------------------------------

She left her office an hour later than usual; for some reason, she didn't want to go home. She had a strange feeling that once she got there, something terrible was going to happen. And so she dawdled, or rather, worked on making a dent in the colossal stack of paperwork constantly piled on her desk. Finally, when her secretary began shooting her knowing looks - Relena sometimes tried to stay longer than necessary and get more done that she physically could in one day - she set the latest documents to the side, stood up, and gathered her things.

Heero glanced up as she exited the office, where she had sat ever since arriving that morning. She hadn't stopped for a lunch break, hadn't taken a quick walk around the building like she usually did - and that would account for the strange look Heero was giving her.

She turned quickly, heading down the staircase, and tossed over her shoulder, "Come on, soldier. Wouldn't want to get farther off schedule, now would we?"

"I think," Heero said darkly, "that we're a little late for that."

-------------------------------------

"…and what does Senator Donovan think of the Christmas proposal?"

Relena sighed, stirring her bowl of chili and glancing down the dinner table at her brother and his wife, Lucrezia. "Well…he's all for the publicity of it, if you know what I mean. He volunteered to arrange all the PR - call up the local stations, and so on."

"Blasted politicians," Zechs, her brother, muttered. "Can't they do anything for the people at Christmastime without trying to increase their egos at the same time?"

"I know. I told them that sometimes it was better to do things like build the new youth center _anonymously_, and they looked at me as if I had something growing out of my head." She sighed again. "I don't know what to do anymore. Sometimes I just - "

"Excuse me, Miss Peacecraft." They glanced up; Pagan was standing in the doorway, looking slightly confused. "I just spoke with Mrs. Maxwell on the vidcam. She said that she couldn't talk at the moment, but wanted you to turn on Channel 6."

Bewildered, Relena drew her eyebrows together. "Why?"

"She didn't say, Miss. Would you like me to turn on the television?"

Relena glanced at Heero, who was standing at attention near the doorway. "Yes, Pagan, thank you."

The room waited in silence while the butler flipped on the TV and turned the channel to six.

Immediately, a news anchor's voice came blaring over the speakers, loud and worried, and the image of a building blazing in an inferno of fire captured the screen.

"…have just received reports that this was, indeed, an act of terrorism - "

"_What_?" Relena stood so abruptly that she knocked into the table.

" - hospital located at Power and Broadway, established nearly fifty years ago, has just come _crashing_ down - "

"_No_." That was Heero, staring at the screen, his face blank.

" - a Preventers unit already visited the area, it was said that they had knowledge of the attack _prior_ to tonight, and yet no action was taken - "

"What?" This time it was Zechs. He whirled around to glare at the bodyguard near the doorway, but Heero was staring at the screen. "Yuy! You _knew_ about this?"

"Factories…" he muttered under his breath. "There were two factories - "

"_Power and Broadway_?" Relena whispered. "No - _no_ - "

"Excuse me, Madame," Pagan said, coming into the room again, his eyes worried, "but there's a Preventers' vehicle coming up the drive just now - I thought you should know…"

Zechs slammed his fist onto the table. "Well, there had better be!" he shouted. "I swear, Yuy, if you people knew about this, I will have your _heads_ - it's a _hospital_, for God's sake - "

But Heero was gone, out the door, and Relena swiftly followed.

The car was sleek, and black - standard Preventer equipment, and Relena recognized the small "03" emblazoned on the bumper: Trowa Barton's code number. Heero was already down the front steps and waiting. Relena drew a sharp breath; as the driver's window rolled down, it revealed a Trowa that was battered, bruised, and burned.

"What happened?" Heero snapped coldly.

Relena came up behind him and caught a glimpse of Quatre in the passenger seat, looking just as battered and cradling his right arm.

Trowa's green eyes, glittering with pain and slight anxiety, said hoarsely, "It was the hospital."

Heero was glaring hotly into the car. "We looked at the plans, the maps - the objective was - "

"Incorrect," Trowa cut him off. "They struck at exactly five fifty…we were clear across the city…there was nothing - "

Heero was silent, and Relena watched the mask slip into place, watched his dark blue eyes grow even harder and colder than they usually were.

"What do we know?" he barked, voice snapping like a whip.

"Three explosive devices. Expertly planted."

"What about…the people?" Relena whispered. Her eyes were wide, fearful. "I sent - I sent a man and a woman there earlier today, they were in a car accident…"

Heero went rigid.

"We found no surviving staff…or patients."

The world stood still, and then shattered into a million pieces.

"No surviving patients," Quatre's soft voice broke in, "but we found…two survivors."

Relena let out her breath in a rush of air. "Who?"

Trowa's glittering green gaze met Heero's. "Open the back door."

And because her bodyguard didn't move, Relena stepped sideways, seeing her own frightened reflection in the tinted windows. Holding out a trembling hand, she gripped the handle, and little by little pulled it open.

There, sitting in the back seat, a boy of nine or ten sat holding his little sister, who was sucking on her thumb and staring at Relena with terrified brown eyes. Her curls were hanging over her dirty forehead, and blood was trickling down the side of her older brother's face. The two children sat and stared as Relena stared at them, until tears began running down the little girl's face and a frightened whimper escaped her. Seeing their burnt, tattered clothes, the bruises, and the various scrapes covering their small bodies, Relena felt her heart give way. Biting her lip, she reached in the car and gently lifted the girl out, cradling the small body against hers as the child's tears ran down her shirt.

And though the girl made no noise as she cried, the round brown eyes gazed in fright at the three big, scary-looking men, and she shakily whispered, "Where's my mommy?"

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**AN: Reviews would be very much appreciated and are always helpful (and encouraging!)! Hint, hint ) **

* * *


	2. Claim Sanctuary

**AN: Thank you so much to all of you who read and reviewed Chapter 1. This chap is a bit shorter than my standard length, but I needed to find a good stopping point and there wasn't one for an extra seven pages after this. :) Sorry 'bout that. :) I honestly hope you all are enjoying this. Lady MR1, your question about Heero's obsession with being on time will be answered in upcoming chapters. Thank you so much for your input. DarkFairy, Lauren, and Nafx, thank you for being so patient with me. I owe you much. :)**

**-----------------------------**

**Finding the Season  
**By Dragonfire

**Chapter 2: Claiming Sanctuary**

" - no, I want answers and I want them now."

"Zechs, all I can say is that we had a projected estimate pertaining - "

"Yuy, I don't want your _projected_ estimate, I want to know if you were aware of this attack before it happened!"

The dark blue eyes were hard. "I was aware."

Zechs' exhale burst out of his body in rage. "For hell's sake - "

"I was also aware of the three other possible locations for the detonation," Heero broke in, his voice cracking like a whip. "In accordance with the reconnaissance and information we had gathered, the projected ground zero was a factory downtown."

"Did you think to _post_ somebody at the hospital?" Zech's piercing, light blue eyes were glaring at the solemn young bodyguard with the fury of a man enraged.

"I did, and within minutes of giving the order to Trowa, he had troops on their way."

"And no one caught the person who entered a public building with three bombs hidden under their coats?"

"First of all, we don't know how many were in on the plan. Second, it's Christmas, and the bombs could've been in the disguise of presents or in Santa bags. Third, we had the factories on red alert and the hospital only on yellow, meaning security screenings are random and not mandatory."

"And whose fault was that?" Zechs hissed through gritted teeth. "Nearly two hundred and fifty people died tonight, Yuy, and it is because of your ignorance."

The last words rang throughout the office, and even though his face showed no emotion, inside…Heero was being twisted into knots of unfamiliar self-doubt and soul-wrenching guilt.

-----------------------------

The girl's head of thick sandy-blond curls had been combed countless times, and her round little face scrubbed until every hint of dirt and blood was gone. Relena held the five-year-old in her lap, helping her into a pair of pajamas that Lucrezia, her sister-in-law, had borrowed from a neighbor.

They sat in a guest room on the third floor of the Peacecraft mansion, Relena and the two children pulled from the wreckage of the hospital blast. The boy was sitting on the opposite bed, watching very warily as Relena helped the younger child to dress.

The girl was eyeing the pink polka dots on her pajama pants with an expression of approval. Relena caught this and ventured to speak:

"You like pink?"

Almost imperceptibly, there was a nod of the head.

"I do too," Relena confided. She was rewarded with the tiniest of smiles. "Now, where do you want to sleep? Over here in your own bed?"

Without responding, the little girl climbed out of Relena's lap and crossed over to her brother, where she clambered onto his bed and slid beneath the covers.

The boy watched his sister with one eyebrow raised. "Sadie," he muttered, "don't even pretend to be asleep."

"Sadie?" Relena said quickly. "Is that her name?"

He glanced up at her, quickly, and nodded.

"What's yours?" she tried again.

His response was not at all what she expected: "Tell me yours first. I - " he was studying her very carefully, noting everything from her hair color to her shoes. "I think I've seen you on TV before. Do you work for the CPS?"

Surprised, Relena replied quickly, "Oh - no. I…I work in politics. My name is Relena."

"Oh," he said, scrunching up his nose. "I do know you. You're the youngest elected government official in history."

Relena gave him a half-smile. "Are you going to tell me your name now?"

His voice dropped, and sandy hair fell rakishly into his eyes. "Brigham," he offered. "My sister calls me Brig."

She smiled again. For two children who had barely survived a terrible accident, they were remarkably calm. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Brig. Do you…do you two mind sleeping here tonight? Do you need me to stay in here with you?"

It felt so weird to ask that…but Relena was feeling extremely protective of these two children, for some reason. She wasn't going to press them about the subject, but she could tell they were both lost, and needed her help - something she was very willing to supply.

The boy looked around at the room, and at his sister, who was now emitting little fake snores. "No," he said quietly. "We'll be fine."

Uneasily Relena stood and crossed slowly to the door. "All right then," she murmured. "Well…sleep tight."

He didn't reply. She rose to switch off the lights, and then Relena turned to glance at the two children one more time. Brigham had climbed into the bed with his sister, and as his body slid under the covers, she watched the little girl immediately twist over to hug her brother tightly around his waist. And just like that, she fell asleep - for real.

For some reason, Relena found her heart twisting painfully. There was something about these two little kids, somehow so _alone_…

"Miss Relena?" Brig whispered into the dark room. "Thanks…for letting us sleep here. The home doesn't have beds as soft as this…" His voice trailed off into a wide yawn, and slowly his breath became regular.

Relena stood a moment in the doorway, unable to leave them. Finally, with a deep breath, she closed the door softly and headed down the hall.

-----------------------------

"…found in room 36C, where the records say a woman was being treated for a fractured forearm. There was a man with her, who had just barely been bandaged for a small laceration on his scalp. The nurse's notes state that just a few moments after transferring the woman to that room, two children came in. Some friendly nurse probably asked a few questions, because it was marked that the man and woman revealed the two kids were adopted."

The room was heavy with Trowa's words; he was staring at the ground, his mouth moving automatically as he gave the customary report. All the adults were seated in Zech's office, and as the grandfather clock in the hallway rang eight o'clock, Relena let out a long breath.

"Where are their parents?" she murmured. She was sitting on the leather sofa, her arms hugging her knees tight to her chest. Usually at this time of night she was back in her house, sorting through paperwork and mentally reviewing her list of meetings for the next day. Normally Heero was gone, and the first of her nighttime bodyguards was stationed outside her door. But not tonight…

"We don't know," Quatre returned. He was a shorter man, with thick light-blond hair and green eyes. "We can't say for sure. On the way home, the boy said they'd only been with these parents for about a week…"

"So what happens now?" Zechs asked. Sitting in his chair, leaning forward with his arms resting on his desk, he was surveying everyone in the room with a critical eye; from Heero, leaning stiff and emotionless against the far wall, to Lucrezia, standing behind the couch with a hand on Relena's shoulder.

"We give them to the CPS to take care of?" Quatre suggested.

"Absolutely not." That was Relena. "They were just in the middle of a terrorist attack; an attack where they alone were the sole survivors. The press will eat them up, and the CPS won't do anything about that, and you know it. The media is _not_ what those children need right now."

Trowa offered, "We could look for family."

Again, Relena shook her head. "Apparently they were moved around a lot. Plus, we can't go through any records without assent of the CPS…and if we asked them, they'd demand the kids back."

"So what do we do?"

There was silence in the room for a long moment, until Relena softly said, "I'll take them."

Heero's eyes, which had been steadily fastened on the floor, shot to her face.

"_Absolutely_ not," Zechs retorted immediately. "That's not even an option."

"Why not?" Relena murmured. "You're married; you don't want two strange kids in the house with you. Trowa and Quatre - and Duo, too - you guys will be too occupied with cleaning up this mess _and_ taking care of your own kids. Wufei and Sally are preparing for their wedding - they definitely can't have kids around now."

"Relena - "

She cut him off. "But I _can _take the time. It's the holidays, which means I'll be booked solid for about three days until everything gets into swing, and then it's all up to the PR people. From here on out the holiday season is just charity appearances…and I've always brought kids along with me there anyway."

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Zechs snapped angrily. "You're Vice Foreign Minister, you can't just _take_ two kids and play mommy - "

"Don't give me that," she shot back. "_You_ have to stop playing big brother and realize that I can do this. I have Pagan and the rest of the staff to help me keep an eye on them, I have no problems in my history that the CPS would express qualms about, and…" her voice trailed off.

Thinking he had found a weakness, Zechs snapped, "And what?"

Her voice broke. "It's my fault they were even there."

Her brother rolled his eyes. "What are you talking - "

"It is!" she insisted. "Heero was there, he can tell you. On the way home today there was a car accident, and I went to check on the people in one of the cars. They weren't badly hurt, but - but the woman had a broken arm and her husband had a cut on his forehead…and I…" Her eyes filled very slowly with silver tears. "I told the taxi driver to take them to Currington General."

It was true; he saw it in her face, in her tears. Zechs glanced around the room, met the eyes of his colleagues and friends, and then looked back at his younger sister.

"Relena…"

"Zechs, please just trust me. I'll take them in, and as soon as I can get out of the holiday mayhem, I'll spend my time finding their parents - or someone to adopt them. It's - " the fight to keep the tears away was evident on her face " - it's the least I can do for them."

He heaved a sigh. "I just don't want you to pile on the workload more than you can handle."

"I'm twenty-seven," Relena returned with a shaky smile. "I'm aware of my limit. And a few stuffy politicians can do without me for one or two meetings…I owe it to these kids."

He was giving in, and they knew it. With a final last attempt at authority, Zechs said sternly, "If you're going to do this, you're going to need some help." He looked up, glanced at the other soldiers in the room, and then came to his decision. "Heero," he announced, "is going to help you."

She froze. "What?"

Heero's head snapped up in surprise.

"Yes," Zechs nodded, liking his idea more and more. "Heero's going to help you, because he's with you all day anyway. Yuy, I'm changing your position status. You're to take up residence at Relena's estate for the duration of this operation. The night shift bodyguards can be detained, and I'll excuse your absences at headquarters also. I want you to look after Relena, and look after the children. I'll make sure - "

"Wait," Relena stammered, almost desperately. Heero? _Live_ with her? Days were hard enough! "He can't live at my house, he has his own - plus, he has his job to do, he can't - "

"I'm changing his orders," Zechs overrode her. Glaring at Heero, he snapped, "Is that clear, soldier?"

"Yes, sir."

Trowa was watching his comrade very carefully. There was nothing in Heero's stance, or in his tone, that could betray what he was feeling - but deep down in those Prussian blue eyes, Trowa caught a glimpse of a brewing storm.

He exchanged glances with Quatre. They both knew that this could prove to be one very sticky situation indeed.

-----------------------------

Relena was one floor above the office, angrily gathering her things together to head home for the night, when she heard a faint cry from the room just above her. All her fury was immediately thrown to the four winds as she burst out into the hallway and dashed up the nearest flight of stairs. All thoughts of how much she hated her brother for shoving her into the most uncomfortable situation imaginable was also forgotten; all she could think of was that the two children were above her, and something was wrong.

She opened the door quickly and flicked on the lights in the room. The little girl - Sadie - was sitting in her brother's lap, tears streaming down her cheeks, her wide russet eyes watery and frightened.

"What's wrong?" Relena asked, anxiously crossing the room to where the two sat on the bed.

"She had a bad dream," Brig muttered, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Oh, Sadie…" Without realizing what she was doing, Relena pulled the little girl into her lap and softly brushed her brown curls from her face. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

The little five year old, who had met Relena only about three hours before, was huddled in her lap, sniffling up a storm and soaking her t-shirt with tears. "There was f-fire," she cried, "and the lady was screaming…"

"Oh, sweetie…" Hugging the little girl against her, Relena rocked softly back and forth. Brig had laid back down in the bed, but his eyes were wide open and she could tell he was frightened, too.

"I'm so sorry for what happened today," she whispered. "I'm _so_ sorry. Children should never have to witness something like that…but I promise, I _promise_, that I'll try and make everything okay."

Sadie's tears diminished as she slowly fell asleep to Relena's steady rocking, but the guilt was eating away at her heart, and soon it was Relena's tears that soaked the bedspread beneath them.

-----------------------------

Relena didn't get much sleep that night, and when she drove back over to Zech's house in the morning, Heero - who was waiting for her on the doorstep - was struck by how exhausted she looked. He hadn't gotten any sleep either - throughout the night he had alternated between worrying about how in the world he would survive _living _with Relena, and the best way to go about subjecting Zechs to a most painful death while still retaining his career position. No possible mission schemes had come to mind…a most uncompromising position.

"Morning," she greeted him with a small smile.

Unfailingly. Every morning. How could someone in her position _smile_ like that every single day?

As usual, he said nothing, just turned and opened the door for her.

Relena stepped into Zech's quiet house and slowly unwound the scarf from her neck. She was shivering a little from the cold outside, and once they were standing in the entryway Heero realized that her hands were trembling very slightly.

"What's wrong?" he said gruffly, checking to make sure he had all his stuff to move into Relena's house. It wasn't much; half of his junk was over there anyway, stashed in a spare cupboard in the monitoring room in case an emergency forced him to spend the night.

Relena flashed him a smile; he didn't return it, but this was different than her other smiles - this one was weaker, shakier, and not nearly as bright.

"I guess…" she murmured, "I'm a bit nervous."

Heero said nothing that would indicate he wanted to hear anything further, but she continued.

"I mean, I can handle speaking to stuck-up politicians, I can handle dealing with terrorist threats or assassination attempts or weeks where I only get six hours of sleep _total_…" Relena's voice lowered as her light blue eyes scanned the room without seeing anything. "…but _kids_? Being…a mother?"

"You're not their mother," Heero said bluntly.

"For the time being," she murmured, "I think I am."

"If you don't like it, don't do it."

Relena glanced up, a little startled at his harsh tone, but he was adjusting some settings on his walkie-talkie, and apparently wasn't paying much attention. The usual behavior…but it felt good to spill this to someone, even if that someone wasn't listening.

"I have to," she whispered with conviction. "I was part of the reason their parents died. I knew something was wrong when I met them at the accident - I _knew_ something important was going to happen based on what I did in the next split second. And I…chose wrong."

He wasn't looking at her.

"So I don't have a choice. And I _want_ to; I want to let these two little kids know how much I feel for them. It was my fault their parents were at that hospital, and it's my responsibility to take care of them until we find their real parents."

The door opened in the entryway and Zechs strode into the room, casually dressed. "Morning, Re." He smiled at her, nodded bluntly to Heero, and then muttered to his sister, "I still think you could change your mind, Relena."

Heero watched her out of the corner of his eye; watched as she drew herself up just the littlest bit, but enough so that he saw in her the regal politician, the former Queen of the World. Zechs didn't stand a chance.

-------------------------

**AN: Thanks for reading…new chap will be up very soon, I absolutely promise :) Reviews are much appreciated!**


	3. Transition

**AN: Basically every file I ever created on my old IBM Thinkpad laptop was lost when the thing pretty much died about two years ago – or so I thought. Just last week, we somehow figured out a way to take the thing apart and transfer them all to my current laptop – and thus, here is the third chapter of Finding the Season, written almost exactly two years ago & just barely published today. Isn't it funny how things turn out? :)**

--

**Finding the Season**

by Dragonfire

**Chapter 3: Transition**

Zechs led them upstairs to where Brig and Sadie were still sleeping. Relena entered the room more than a little apprehensive, self-conscious and nervous, but at the sight of those darling little curls spread out every which-way on the pillow, all her fears evaporated. Leaving her brother and Heero in the doorway, Relena crossed the room and took a seat softly next to the children, just watching them savor their last few moments of sleep.

Brig's eyes fluttered open first, and to Relena's surprise, when he first saw her his eyes only registered mild curiosity. Then, almost as if she sensed him awakening, Sadie shot to life, sitting straight up in bed and letting out a long, jaw-cracking yawn. As soon as she had finished, she caught sight of Relena and gave a shy "hi."

Relena smiled. "Good morning. Do you remember me?"

Sadie nodded; Brig simply watched with remarkably alert brown eyes.

"You gave me pink jammies," Sadie confirmed, her sandy blond-brown curls bouncing.

"I did," Relena laughed a little. "And I'm here today because I know you don't want to stay in this stuffy old house anymore, so if it's all right with you two…I think, until we can get everything cleared up, you two can come stay at my house."

She was met with a thoughtful silence. Brig was studying, while Sadie merely asked, "Do you have any dolls?"

Relena smiled. "No, not right now. But…I'm sure we can find some."

She was met with an ear-to-ear smile, and Relena knew she had won over the little girl.

Brig, however, was looking her up and down carefully. "Do you have a big house?" he said quietly.

Relena nodded.

"Do you live with your husband and kids?"

"What? Oh, no - no, I'm not married."

"Oh…" Brig said, confused. "When you walked in I just thought that he…" his voice trailed off; he was leaning sideways to look at Heero in the doorway.

She felt a blush creep into her cheeks and frantically tried to keep her voice level. "Uh - no. No, he's actually my bodyguard."

Sadie's big brown eyes widened. "What's a 'bodyguard'?"

"Something only rich people have," Brig told her, his eyes on Relena.

"But we don't have one."

"We're definitely not rich, Sadie."

Zechs gave a small chuckle from the doorway, and crossed the room to say, "Well, I promise that you'll have a lot of fun staying at Miss Relena's house. We can get some toys there for you to play with - "

"Brig doesn't _like_ toys," Sadie interrupted, casting a baleful glance at her brother.

Relena raised an eyebrow.

"Books," he explained shortly, glaring at the little girl next to him. "And she's obsessed with Barbies."

The little girl's face broke into a wide beam. She leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially to Relena, "My favorite has a pink dress."

Relena laughed at the irritated expression on Brig's face. "Okay, I promise that if you come over to my house, Brig, you can have complete access to the entire library. And Miss Sadie, we will find boxes of Barbies in pink dresses for you."

:

"Are we there yet?"

Sadie's plea, having been repeated over and over again for the last eight minutes and forty-six seconds exactly, was beginning to send Heero over the edge.

"Are we there yet?"

The confines of the limo were pressing in on him. Brig was sitting just three feet away, but the boy was merely staring at the window. Good kid. Across from them sat Relena and the incessant little noisemaker that was a five-year-old, curly-haired little girl. Not a good kid.

"Are we there yet?"

Relena, of course, was completely calm. "Not yet, Sadie."

"Are we there yet?"

Heero decided that if he had a self-destruct mechanism used to only obliterate one-quarter of the limousine, he would have used it six minutes ago on his particular quarter.

"Are we there yet?"

Children. He sighed inwardly. Maxwell's were bad enough - four screaming, jumping, joking, giggling maniacs that looked way too much like their father for comfort. Going over there for dinner was like entering a world full of crazed and hyperactive Duo mini-clones.

"Are we there yet?"

He was praying that this assignment would last a week, maybe, or two at the most; the combined factors of being so close to Relena and at the same time being so overrun by an entirely different set of minis were enough to overtake even the Perfect Soldier. There was no emotion involved in a mission like this; only pure, unadulterated irritation.

"Are we there yet?"

"Sadie."

Heero glanced up. Relena? Losing her cool?

"We're not there yet, honey."

Nope. No chance. Just that small, patient smile. Sometimes he wondered if Relena was inhuman herself.

"I was just wondering…because I hafta go potty…"

He froze. _What_.

"Can you wait till we get home?"

Sandy-blond curls shook as the little girl swung her head back and forth.

"All right then." With absolutely miraculous patience, Relena got the attention of the driver and soon exited the car, thankfully taking the thing with her.

Heero and the boy were left in silence. Brig was still staring out the window at the passing cars.

A minute passed.

Two.

Three, and Heero started to wonder. Was it _natural_ for children to be quiet that long?

Four.

Not that he minded, exactly, but it was unnerving him a bit. He knew with dead certainty that none of Maxwell's horde had ever been silent for a simple full minute - even in sleep, they snored and chattered like monkeys.

Five.

Something must be wrong. Uneasiness forced Heero to open his mouth.

"Your name is Brigham, right?"

The kid turned slightly, glanced at him with very adult-looking brown eyes, and turned back to the window. "Yeah."

"Brig for short?"

A nod.

Silence again.

And the Perfect Soldier had no idea what to do. Finally, after racking his brains for any fragment of training discipline that would help in this instance, Heero decided he should simply count his blessings and enjoy the peace while it lasted.

Unfortunately, after spending his precious seven minutes of silence worrying about something else, the car door opened and Relena and Sadie climbed back in. Heero sighed again as they pulled out of the parking lot, just _waiting_ for it to come again.

And sure enough, it did.

"Are we there yet?"

:

The day passed fairly quickly for Relena; upon entering the house, they set about getting the kids settled. Well, she did. Heero took an immediate walk around the grounds to ensure that all security gadgets and mechanisms were working properly. She took Sadie and Brig upstairs. To her surprise, they both agreed on sharing a room, so Relena found one on the third floor with bunk beds, two small dressers, and more than enough space for toys. Once Sadie had claimed the bottom bunk and bounced up and down enough times - while Brig carefully locked the balcony door before his sister could find it - Relena guided them back downstairs and gave them the full tour.

At about two o'clock in the afternoon, when Heero was speaking with Pagan about security measures and Relena was playing a very old version of Chutes and Ladders in the living room with Sadie while Brig read a book nearby, the doorbell rang.

As Relena stood, Sadie leaped up and followed her closely as she went around to the front entryway. As soon as Relena pulled open the front door, she was attacked by four small figures, ranging from ages four to eight.

"Aunt Relena!"

"Guess what we found!"

"Hey, Ty, I said _I_ wanted to tell her - "

"Nuh-uh, Brie, I found it first!"

"_Hey_!"

The four maniacs stopped dead in their tracks.

"Enough of that," said a short, dark-haired woman that stepped gracefully past the tangled mess of arms and legs and into Relena's entryway.

"Afternoon, Hilde," Relena greeted her, disentangling herself from the masses.

"Hey, Re, how's it going? Zechs just called Duo this morning and said - " Hilde stopped; she had caught sight of Sadie, who was standing, a little frightened, in the corner of the entryway. "Aww, Re, is that one of them?" she whispered to Relena.

A nod.

"Well, hi!" Hilde said, grinning. "What's your name?"

Sadie lifted her thumb to her mouth and sucked for a moment before answering shyly, "Sadie."

"Sadie? Oh, isn't she _adorable_," Hilde cried. "How cute is that. Look at those _curls_!"

There was a slightly distraught voice from the doorway. "_I _have curly hair too, Mommy."

Hilde turned. Her third-oldest, a five-year-old brunette with Duo's huge, persuasive cobalt eyes, was glaring in part anger and part hurt at her mother.

Hilde rolled her eyes. "Brie, I know you do, sweetheart."

Relena turned to Sadie and held out her hand. "Come here, honey, there's some friends for you to meet."

Sadie shyly stepped forward and grasped Relena's hand with her free one, while the thumb remained stuck fast in her mouth.

"The oldest is Ty, he's eight," said Hilde, as her children grinned at the newcomer. "And then Bradley, he's almost seven; Brie, she's five - "

"Like me!" Sadie interrupted, overjoyed.

Brie gave her a grin and then whispered, "My birthday's - "

A small hand cut her off. Brie looked down at her four-year-old brother's indignant face and let her mom finish.

"And the little one is Cap. He's - "

"I can say it!"

Relena laughed at the short, stocky little toddler. "How old are you, Cap?"

"Fowr." He said it proudly, regally, and glared at anyone who would dare to disbelieve.

"We just came over to say hi," said Hilde, "and drop by some stuff I thought you might need." She knelt down to look Sadie in the eye and smiled broadly. "We brought over some of Brie's old clothes - she's getting a bit too tall for most of her stuff. Would you like some new clothes?"

Sadie looked Hilde over with an appraising eye, and asked skeptically, "Do you have any pink?"

The Maxwell clan ended up staying over for dinner, which was a crazy affair in itself. Pagan concocted the most massive dish of spaghetti-and-meatballs he had ever attempted in his entire reign as the Peacecraft family chef. Duo barged in the front door at about four o'clock, causing massive havoc to ensue as his children went crazy, starting an immediate game of 'horse' with their dad. Sadie was soon in the middle of the fray, giggling wildly as she sat tall upon Duo's back throughout his attempts to 'buck' her off.

Hilde and Relena watched from the doorway of the den. Brig was sitting nearby, a book near his hand, watching attentively as his little sister held gamely on. Relena had the feeling that the minute Sadie were to fall, Brig would be right there. As soon as it happened, however - Sadie tumbled right off Duo's back and onto four-year-old Cap - she gave a massive spurt of giggles and stood right back up, ready to help Brie tame the 'horse' next.

Hilde laughed as Duo shot her a pained expression, and then murmured to Relena, "I don't understand why you're doing this. Zechs mentioned something about it being your fault?"

Relena's heart clenched uncomfortably. "On the way home from a meeting yesterday, there was an accident right in front of us. Two people - a man and a woman - were hurt, and I sent them to Currington General."

Hilde's pretty, dark eyes showed that she understood. "Their parents?"

"Foster parents, yes."

"Don't feel guilty, Re. You had no way of knowing, and besides, they probably would have ended up there anyway even if you hadn't sent them."

"Yeah."

There was a pause while Hilde appraised her friend. Knowing that no matter what she said, the guilt would still eat away at Relena until she could fix things, Hilde decided to change the subject.

"I heard that someone's moving in to help you."

"Let's not discuss that."

"Why in the world would _Zechs_, of all people, let Heero live in your house? Doesn't he realize - "

"No," Relena cut her off. "He doesn't, and I want to keep it that way."

"So…"

"Hilde."

"What?"

"I don't want to talk about it. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to sleep knowing he's in the next room."

"Easy. Make him sleep in the gardener's shed."

Relena couldn't help it - she laughed, and then helped Hilde gather the children for dinner.

:

To Relena, everything was fine when the Maxwells were over. They sat down to a delicious, loud dinner, during which the kids - and Duo - had their own meatball-flinging contest, and even Brig, who seldom smiled and even more rarely laughed, helped his little sister aim a particularly fat meatball at Duo's face.

Heero sat silently, eating little and saying even less. The quick dark eyes took note of everything; the Maxwell children's raucous laughter; Sadie's giggles and bouncing curls; Brig's unceasing solemnity; and the new light sparkling in Relena's eyes as she watched the kids laugh back and forth.

But following dinner, as Relena, Sadie, and Brig stood in the doorway and waved goodbye to the loud family of dark-haired jesters, Relena suddenly realized how terribly awkward this was going to be. Oh, not with the kids - she was comfortable with them already. But there was a man standing behind her, partly in the shadows, that would be in the same house as her tonight. And that scared her more than taking charge of two kids ever could.

"Okay, guys, let's head on up to bed," she said, smiling at them. Brig took Sadie's hand and led her upstairs to change into their pajamas. Relena stepped forward to follow them, but Heero, albeit unintentionally, was blocking her way.

"I…don't know where exactly you want to sleep," Relena said, stammering a little. "There's a lot of rooms, you're welcome to - "

The deep blue eyes were watching her carefully. "I know this house better than I do my own," he replied quietly.

"I - I know," Relena shot back, "I was just trying…"

"To be hospitable?"

She shot him a look. "That doesn't even constitute a response. You've been in my house so many times I don't even have to be hospitable."

"I'll take the room at the end of the hallway from the kids'."

Relena balked at the thought. Brig and Sadie were staying at the far end of a hallway on the third floor - _her_ hallway. Her bedroom was in the dead center of that particular corridor, and if Heero was staying at the other end…

"Unless that's…disagreeable."

"Nope," she shot back, hating the way he looked so disarmingly handsome with one eyebrow cocked. "Enjoy. If you don't mind, I'll be going to bed now."

He didn't reply, just followed her silently up the stairs until they separated to their respective rooms.

_Shoot me, just shoot me._

Relena went to the kids' room first, where Brig and Sadie had just finished getting dressed in their pajamas. Getting them settled on their bunk beds was easy enough; then, Relena realized she didn't know what to do.

She took a seat in an armchair close to the bunk beds, and watched as Sadie curled up to suck her thumb, and Brig stretched out watchfully on his side.

"I'm glad you don't mind staying here," Relena ventured, her voice quiet.

Brig didn't respond, but Sadie's quick reply was: "I like your house, it's big."

Relena smiled. "I'm glad to have you here, sweetie."

There was silence for a moment, and then Relena dared to ask, "What…did your mom do to help you get to sleep?"

Brig asked simply, "Which one?"

Her heart twisted. "Well, whichever one you liked best."

"Mrs. Thompson read us a book before we went to sleep."

She brightened; that sounded good. "Which book?"

Brig yawned. "The Bible."

_Yikes_. Not that that was a bad thing…but as a bedtime book? Whenever she helped put Hilde's kids to sleep, it was Dr. Seuss and "Goodnight Moon" and "The Rainbow Fish."

However, her library wasn't very amply supplied with that particular genre of titles.

And so, Relena decided to improvise. She switched off the bedroom lamp, letting the light from the hallway illuminate the room a little bit, and then began to sing softly.

"_Do you know who you are_

_Little child of mine_

_So precious and dear to me…"_

It was a song she hadn't heard for years, but she would never forget it; her own adoptive father had sung it to her almost nightly in her early years. She saw Brig's eyes widen in surprise just slightly as she began singing, but very soon Sadie's furious sucking of her thumb had subsided, and even Brig's breath was steady and even. They were asleep…and for some reason, watching those two little children, their sandy-blond hair falling into their faces, she felt something take control of her heart and tug fiercely.

Reluctantly, she left the bedroom.

He heard her leave the children's bedroom, shut off the light, and enter her own. He had never stayed the night in this house before, not like this…not as a resident, as opposed to a mere guard. He was lying on his back in a bed not unlike the one she was falling asleep in just down the hall.

Heero had heard her singing the two kids to sleep; her soft voice, melodious and, to him, almost angelic, had floated lightly down the hall and brushed softly past his ears. She was falling in love with those two kids; part of it was the guilt that he knew was eating away at her heart, and part of it was the loneliness he knew she felt when she returned home at night. But regardless of the reason, he saw the sparkle in her eyes; she had a family, of sorts, to call her own…at least for a little while.

He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling, trying to quiet the noise of his own breath in order to hear any movement from her room. Was he part of that family? What exactly would come of this mission? He knew she would become a mother figure to those kids; if they were here for Christmas, he didn't doubt that those kids would stampede downstairs Christmas morning to a tree chock full of more presents than they had probably ever received in their life. And Relena would be watching, smiling her perfect smile, and just loving them.

But who would be giving to her?

It was the story of her life; she gave so much, every single day, to the world. She gave _herself_, sacrificing nearly every kind of personal happiness in order to give her people their own safe and happy lives. They saw her as the politician, the former princess, the leader, the dignitary…

…but he didn't see her as any one of those. He had never been able to. When someone would comment on how she made an excellent politician or a gorgeous young woman, all Heero could ever see was her _inner _beauty, her unfailing unselfishness, her generosity. He saw how much she gave of herself, and he hated the world for it, for how they treated her. Maybe that was why he protected her so fiercely. Or maybe because she was the one being he had ever met comprised of nothing but pure good. She was…otherworldly, in a sense. Ethereal.

Angelic.

Heero rolled over onto his side, struggling against the overbearing thoughts of her. He closed his eyes, tried to regulate his breathing; all the soldier tricks that were hammered into his brain to allow him to sleep anywhere, under any circumstances…but his training had never prepared him for Relena, and he knew that, again, he would get very little sleep tonight.


	4. The Problem With Santa

**AN: don't you just love Saturdays where you definitely have two problem sets & 170 pages of reading to do, not to mention a paper to write - and all you really do is sit in a comfy armchair in the library and stall with Facebook and Fanfiction?** **glorious.**

**by the way, this story is making me so excited for Christmastime. :)**

--

**Finding the Season**

by Dragonfire

**Chapter 4: The Problem With Santa**

The next morning, Relena awoke at a blissful eight o'clock. There were no events scheduled until a bit later that day, and she had a single blessed morning to relax.

Curled up in bed, the mouth-watering aroma of bacon, powdered-sugared French toast, and toasted bagels - her favorite breakfast - reached her nose. Still with her eyes closed, she smiled, and from somewhere downstairs came Sadie's irrepressible, sparkling little giggle.

A peaceful, contented feeling spread throughout her body; she was warm in her bed, protected from the chilly winter wind outside, and downstairs were two children that she cared about very much. In a moment she would stand up, go downstairs, and they would eat breakfast together…just like a real family.

She loved the idea…except for the fact that she was missing one thing. Ruefully, Relena rolled over and glared at the empty pillow beside her. There was no one to wake up with, no one to accidentally kick in the middle of the night, no one to hold and cherish and laugh with as they both walked downstairs to breakfast.

Realizing what she was doing, Relena shook her head and sat up quickly. She couldn't get too attached to these kids - she would find their family, give them back, Heero would return to his work as a bodyguard, and everything would go back to normal.

She heaved a very deep sigh. Somehow, normal wasn't nearly so welcome anymore.

Simultaneously standing and pulling on her robe, Relena piled her messy hair up in a ponytail and yawned as she stepped outside her room and down the stairs. Her nose led her to the spacious kitchen, where Pagan was entertaining Sadie as he flipped eggs sky-high and then expertly caught them before they splattered in the pan. Brig was stirring the batter for the French toast, from time to time flicking a fingerful of batter at his little sister.

Relena watched them from the doorway for a moment. Sadie's curls were messy, her pajamas a little skewed, but her deep brown eyes were alight with laughter, and Brig's own tousled hair made him seem a lot younger than his ten years. They were darling little kids, and -

She turned and caught sight of the room's other occupant: Heero was seated at the small table, going through the day's newspaper. He was already dressed and looked just as pulled-together as he always did; Relena felt horribly self-conscious in her robe and pajamas. All he had ever seen her in was her office clothes, and formal gowns for balls. Yes, it was definitely weird having Heero continuously in her house.

"Good morning," she offered, trying to stay upbeat.

Sadie whirled at the sound of her voice and let out a cry of excitement; she dashed over to Relena, hugged her fiercely around the legs and said excitedly, "Guess what! Guess what!"

Relena couldn't help it; she laughed and knelt down to face the little girl. "What, Sadie?"

"Pay-gin said he'd put chocolate chips in my French toast! _And_ he said he'd let Briggy have bacon strips, 'cause that's what he likes - "

"Briggy?" Relena interrupted, raising an eyebrow at Brig.

"I hate that name," he muttered, concentrating fiercely on the batter.

" - but," Sadie continued, lowering her voice conspiratorially, "Pay-gin said Mr. Hero could have some chocolate chips too, and Mr. Hero said _no_." She whispered this last syllable as if it were a swear word.

Relena glanced over. Heero's face was still buried in the paper.

"I think…" Sadie whispered, her brown eyes worried, "that Mr. Hero is a little scary."

She couldn't help it; Relena glanced over at Heero again. This time she caught him looking at her. He raised an eyebrow and then disappeared into the paper again.

"He's only scary on the outside," Relena whispered to the little girl, unable to keep from laughing herself.

Heero emerged from behind the paper to shoot her the trademark Death Glare. Relena easily ignored him and took Sadie's hand. "Come on, sweetie, let's go help Pay-gin with the food."

Breakfast that morning was a very unusual affair; Relena was definitely unused to actually sitting down to breakfast, much less with other people. Normally she was wolfing a piece of toast down as fast as she could before she had to attend the early-morning meetings or catch a flight; only on special occasions did she actually allow herself to have a sit-down breakfast with real breakfast food.

And "Pay-gin" had done well; besides the French toast - including chocolate chips and bacon strips - there was a huge pitcher of orange juice, fresh bagels with cream cheese, a plate of muffins studded with nuts and blueberries, a platter of scrambled eggs, and a large bowl filled with nothing but fresh berries.

Relena would have truly enjoyed the meal had she been dining alone, or with Zechs and Lucrezia - even the children didn't provide much of a distraction. Sadie, after devouring two and a half slices of French toast and a giant muffin, was happily mashing berries on her plate in a largely varied array of color and juice. Brig steadily chomped away at his own stack of bacon-ed toast, gulping down orange juice after nearly every bite.

But Heero was sitting opposite Relena, and it was so…_weird_ to see him eating a normal meal at _her_ table. It was so beyond the normal routine of grabbing something from a fast-food restaurant in the ten-minute breaks between appointments, and at formal dinners he was always on duty; never had she seen him take a single bite of anything. So for him to sit down across from her, making his way through a plate of food, was at both a little uncomfortable and intriguing at the same time.

At one point, Relena realized she was staring and hadn't eaten anything beyond a single blueberry-splattered pancake (courtesy of Sadie), when the little girl suddenly sighed and announced, "I'm done."

"Okay." Relena smiled and stood. "Let's go get showered and dressed for the day, then. Brig, do you mind coming with me to work today?"

"Do you have to go to meetings?"

"Nope, not today. Today I have to go help out at a mall. It's the first day that Santa's going to be there, and I get to help a bunch of kids sit on his lap and talk to him."

Heero was raising an eyebrow again, and she knew exactly why. No one had told the press what Relena was doing, and if she was going to show up at a very public event with two kids in tow, people would start asking questions very quickly.

_Well, I can handle that, Mr. Perfect Soldier_. _I think_.

"Does that mean we get to go see _Santa_?" Sadie's voice was absolutely incredulous.

Surprised, Relena turned. "Of course you do."

Her eyes went very big and round. "Is he scary like Mr. Hero?"

Suppressing the urge to laugh out loud, Relena avoided looking at the man sitting across the table from her and asked Sadie, "Have you ever seen Santa before?"

She shook her head, and Brig contributed quietly, "We get worried every year, because we don't know if he'll bring us presents since we've never told him what we want."

"Why haven't you gone to see him?"

Brig shrugged. "No one ever let us."

"Well," Relena said, pushing in her chair and smiling. "I promise that Santa always gives the most special presents to the kids who haven't seen him, and I promise that I'll take you to see him today."

"You promise?" Sadie asked sternly.

"I promise," Relena replied, laughing. "Now let's run upstairs and start the shower so we can get you ready in time to leave."

Brig stood up, too. "Can I shower?"

"Yup," Relena replied as she followed Sadie out of the dining room and upstairs. "Do you need Heero to help you with anything?"

"Nope," answered Brig very quickly.

And Relena laughed again as she rounded the corner upstairs, because she had just caught a glimpse of Heero's face - for once, _not_ expressionless; in fact, he looked quite put out.

:

Two hours later, Relena was once again throwing random things into her purse as she raced against the clock. This time, however, there was a five-year-old girl behind her, neatly hairsprayed and ribbon-tied curls bouncing up and down as she voiced her worries.

"We're going to be late!"

"Sadie, I'm _hurrying_ - "

Relena grabbed her cell phone, realized she hadn't charged it, and nearly growled in frustration. _No time, no time_ - "Forget it," she muttered, and turned, grabbed Sadie's hand, and left the room.

She nearly ran into Heero out in the hallway. He was standing, looking perfect as always, next to Brig, who was studying his little sister carefully.

"Here."

Relena looked up; Heero was holding the 'spare' cell phone in his hand - purchased because a certain Vice Foreign Minister frequently forgot to charge her own.

"Is it - "

"Yes, it's charged. And we're - "

"Two minutes behind schedule."

He stopped, startled, and Relena merely grinned.

"Sadie," Brig said suddenly, "why are you wearing that lip paint stuff?"

Relena whirled to look at the girl, who, sometime when Relena was occupied getting herself ready, had lathered her lips quite messily with deep red lipstick.

"Oh, _Sadie_ - " she knelt next to her and pulled a Kleenex from her purse, attempting fruitlessly to wipe away the color.

"Three minutes," Heero said mildly from behind her.

Mopping up most of the mess, Relena shouldered her purse, grabbed Sadie's hand, and brushed past Heero, muttering, "Well thank you, Mr. Helpful."

He made no response, and Sadie promptly stuck her tongue out at him.

:

"Did you say we're going to a mall?"

Relena glanced up from where she had been adjusting Sadie's neat red skirt. Brig was watching her with his usual inquisitive expression.

"Yup, that's what I said."

"What do we do?"

"Well," Relena replied, settling back into the limousine seat. "You two just stick next to me. When we get out there's going to be a lot of camera flashes, and then we'll go in and meet the rest of the kids, and go see Santa. Okay?"

"Photographers are waiting for us?"

Relena paused, and then realized Brig was too smart for her to hide things from him. "Yeah. But don't worry, all we do is hop right out, you can smile and wave if you want, and we just walk right in."

Brig nodded, and then Sadie promptly piped up, "Why does Mr. Hero have to come?"

Relena suppressed a chuckle. Sadie was truly a little afraid of her bodyguard. "Because…well, he's here to protect me." The last word was spoken too softly, too - too tenderly…and Relena knew it. Her gaze flew to Heero, but he was staring alertly out the window.

"Protect you against what?" Brig's curiosity was roused again.

"Against some people that might want to cause trouble."

"Will they hurt us?" Sadie asked nervously.

"No, honey, of course not," Relena assured her. "All you're here to do today is to meet Santa, and that's it. It's going to be so much fun, I promise."

And with that, the limousine suddenly slowed to a stop and pulled over to the curb. Even through the darkened windows, Relena could see the outline of the hundreds of photographers and reporters just waiting for her to step out.

She signed inwardly. _Here we go again_…

:

It was ritual by now. She would step out, he would emerge right behind her, take her lightly by the elbow, and guide her silently down the 'red carpet.' He had done this so many times that even the tingling sensation he received from just brushing her fingers against her arm had blurred together in the memories of the hundreds and hundreds of public appearances they had attended. This was no different, except he wouldn't be standing by her this time. And Heero found, to his surprise, that that fact made him strangely uncomfortable.

The limo stopped, applause and the general roar of the crowd could be heard, and then Steve opened the door from the outside and Relena stepped out. There was an immediate flash of camera bulbs, a blur of excited voices, but Relena turned and pulled from the limousine - to the press's surprise - two children. This action received its own all-around camera flash, and then another outburst of questions.

Heero stepped out of the car and quickly came to stand behind the three of them. Brig and Sadie were both wide-eyed, staring at the hundreds of reporters with mingled awe and fear evident on their faces. Heero had begun to follow after the three when Relena suddenly turned and hissed to him, "Take them to the entrance, will you? I've got some explaining to do."

He nodded once and stepped forward to grasp the little girl firmly by the hand and guide Brig with them to the entrance of the mall. Sadie flinched at his touched, shied away and crossed over to clutch Brig's hand very tightly. Heero, to his immense surprise, felt an odd sense of loss at Sadie's evident dislike of him. Of course, he was just concerned about the safety of the two kids…yeah, that was it…

When they were safely out of the range of the paparazzi, Heero glanced back and froze for just a split second. His eyes were filled with a vision; there was a gorgeous blond woman back there, her hair in a classy ponytail and clad in a business ensemble of deep red, a color that only complimented her complexion and made her eyes sparkle. As he watched, she was listening closely to what a young male reporter was whispering in her ear, and then threw back her head and let loose the laugh that both haunted and graced Heero's dreams nearly every night. The reporter grinned, pleased that he had scored such a reaction, and immediately began walking with her down the pathway, scribbling on his notepad.

Something flamed in Heero's chest, and all he could think for a split-second was: _Get away, you dirty little hotshot. You don't know who you're dealing with_.

And then Relena stepped away from him, smiling her goodbye, and she rejoined them, brushing easily past Heero and firmly grasping Sadie's hand. "Let's go, guys," she laughed under her breath, and then led the way into the mall entrance.

:

Three and a half hours later, Heero had nothing but an extremely large, extremely mean, and extremely violent headache. He had been standing at one post for the entire length of time now, guarding and watching and watching and guarding. And even though it was his usual job, he _hated_ guarding her at Christmas - and for very obvious reasons.

Relena was standing near the poor "Santa Claus," who was seated in a very large, very red throne under a very large, very red sign that read, "Santa's Wonderland." She was helping the group of four hundred or so children - all between the ages of three and ten - each take their own personal time to sit on that poor Santa's lap and demand what they wanted this year.

But they weren't even the ones that were bugging Heero. Even Sadie, who had made friends immediately with a group of munchkins her age, was being relatively calm, giggling over in some corner. Brig, the excellent kid as always - in Heero's mind, at least - was patiently standing near Relena, having already volunteered to go dead last. No, they were being all right, for the moment.

What was _bugging _him was that hotshot young reporter; he was back again, standing not a foot away from Relena, and making her laugh way too often for comfort. Heero stood and, because he knew she would be furious if he attempted to eliminate the guy - especially in the middle of a charity function - stood very still and did the only thing he could: he glared.

She paid him no attention….as usual. Just burst out laughing every six seconds from whatever that idiot reporter was saying.

_Asshole_.

The minutes passed, second by agonizing second. Heero tried to ignore Relena and the disgusting reporter by making a mental list in his head of the things each kid had wished for - at least, those kids that hadn't ran off screaming from Santa. It was the typical Christmas repertoire: Barbies, Legos, dolls, bicycles, baseball bats and gloves, roller blades…one girl who couldn't have been older than seven asked for a car, and another little boy asked for someone to come take his annoying little sister away. Sadie's list had been long, complicated, and ornately detailed for a five-year-old; she knew exactly what she wanted, in order of greatest want on down, and exactly where Santa could find them if he didn't have the supplies and/or time in his shop. The devil hidden behind the curls and huge brown eyes knew exactly how to strategize Christmastime.

Heero sighed inwardly. This wasn't working. Between every thought, his eyes shot to Relena.

_Don't look at her. Don't think about it. You don't care, remember?_

Heero's eyes swept over the scene once more; thankfully, they were getting down to the last five or so kids, and he could tell that Santa was getting more than a little impatient.

Now Heero wasn't much of a Christmas fan, what with everybody getting all touchy-feely and sentimental; plus, bodyguarding was doubly hard due to the fact that wherever Relena went she was even more surrounded by the slimy people that hoped to take advantage of her generous nature. But he did know exactly what Santa Claus was - or was supposed to be - and he understood why kids _needed_ to believe in something magical like that. He was surprised that a child as mentally and emotionally mature as Brig would still believe in the Christmas myth, but he realized that he was grateful for the boy's ignorance; at least the ten-year-old wasn't completely jaded by his difficult life. If Heero had had kids - which he didn't, and doubted he ever would - he wouldn't be one of those to spill the beans about Saint Nick when they were young…in his eyes, it took away the magic of Christmas for a child.

This was very uncharacteristically "touchy-feely" for Heero…which was why he had never voiced the thoughts, and never would, under any circumstances.

But the Santa seated on his rather large rear end on the glittery throne was clearly itching to get out of the mall - not to mention the suit - and he wasn't doing a very good job to hide it.

"Idiot," Heero muttered under his breath. "Only three kids left and you can't give them a good Christmas, too?"

He glanced over at Relena and saw that she was looking worriedly at the Santa Claus, too, her eyebrows drawn together with concern. She spoke softly to the five or so reporters surrounding her, and they all nodded and glared at the man in the red suit. Clearly, at this point the guy wasn't totally fulfilling the job requirements. The child next in line, a little girl that looked about eight or so, was pushed forward until she shyly climbed onto the Santa's lap. Relena caught Heero's gaze and tilted her head toward Santa, her expression one of concern. Understanding what she wanted, he stepped quickly forward and around the line until he was just three feet away from St. Nick.

Immediately, Heero winced. The guy had definitely been drinking over his fifteen-minute lunch break; he reeked of alcohol. The little girl wrinkled her nose, but love for "Santa" overruled her disgust, and she gave him a shy smile.

"Hi, Santa. I've been good this year, I tried really hard – "

In any other situation Heero would've rolled his eyes, but he was getting more irritated with this Santa Claus by the minute. The guy cut her off with a grunt, and then muttered, "Just tell me what you want, kid, and let's get this over with."

Not knowing what else to do, the girl said hesitatingly, "Well…there's a new Barbie playhouse, I saw it on TV – I'd really like that! And…and some roller blades, red ones with the white stars, and – "

"Okay, well, that's enough for now," Santa cut her off.

"But – " the girl stammered as he was lifting her off his lap and setting her down on the ground. "But I didn't get to tell you about the puppy – "

"Next!" Santa called, drowning her out.

Stunned, the girl stumbled back to the line.

Heero glanced at Relena. Her expression was calm, but he could feel the fire in her eyes all the way to where he was standing.

The next two kids took their turns, each shorter than the last; Santa grew increasingly rude, Relena increasingly concerned, and Heero increasingly angry. None of these kids came from high-class families, half of them wouldn't get any of their wishes for Christmas, and this fat alcoholic had no right to get a job being Santa if he wasn't going to do the job right.

Then the last kid stepped up, and Heero's heart sank: he had forgotten that Brig had volunteered to be last. He watched as the sandy-haired little boy, a bit too small for his age, strode calmly forward and took his place on Santa's lap. Relena had stepped out of her protective circle of reporters, her hand on the railing of "Santa's Wonderland," visibly holding her breath.

Brig sat quietly for a moment, waiting for Santa to initiate the conversation.

"Hey," the guy in the suit muttered, glaring.

"I know you already know my name," Brig said calmly, "so is it all right if I just tell you what I want this year?"

Santa made no reply; Relena relaxed a little bit.

"I'd like the new Barbie playhouse, the Sleeping Beauty Barbie, a pink dress – "

Brig stopped. Santa was shaking with suppressed laughter and staring disbelievingly at the kid on his lap.

"Kid – somethin' must be wrong with you – I ain't sure I can find a pink dress…in…your size," Santa managed to get out between guffaws.

"Not _my_ size," Brig responded calmly. "In my little sister's size."

Santa stopped laughing. "What?"

"My sister. Her name is Sadie. The pink dress has to be in her size…oh, and she also wanted the new Barbie car. Make sure to get the pink one."

"Let me get this straight. You're wishing for all this crap for your _sister_?"

Brig nodded once. "And could you get something for Miss Relena? I don't know what she'd like, but you could find something, I guess. Like jewelry? Or something? I'm not sure. Oh, and I guess we should get something for Mr. Heero, too, but I _really _don't know what to get him…"

"What the hell are you doing?"

Brig just stared at him.

"You sucking up for something, kid? Just spit it out, I'm sick and tired of sitting here."

"I don't – " Brig began, bewildered.

"Look, this is the last place I want to be right now, kid, the suit is itching like you would not believe, and I need a drink. So either you spit it out now or you get off the damn chair."

Not knowing what else to do, Brig stepped off the dais, his face expressionless.

It was finally over – the sign reading "Closed until 5 P.M." came down, Santa retreated into his "Wonderland," and the kids began filing out of the mall.

Heero helped the chaperoning adults guide the kids towards the exit. After speaking to the reporters outside and wishing them the Merry Christmas he knew Relena would have said, he turned around and went back inside. Striding quickly through the now-empty mall, he came upon the "Wonderland" again and after a brief search, found exactly what he wanted – a door in the back.

Five minutes later, he exited the "Wonderland" and, mission completed, went to find Relena.

The reporters had finally left; she was sitting on a bench down the hallway, with Brig and Sadie next to her. Brig, his very solemn face still expressionless, was listening to something Relena was saying. And Sadie was right next to him, sucking furiously on her thumb.

They all looked up as Heero approached. Sadie immediately scooted closer to Relena.

"Are they all leaving?" Relena asked him quietly.

Heero nodded.

"I told them I was sorry I couldn't say goodbye to the children…but – "

"I know."

She sighed, and stood up, helping Sadie to her feet. "Are you guys ready to go?"

"Home?" asked Sadie hopefully, pausing from her thumb-sucking for a moment.

Relena's smile fell. "No, I'm sorry. I need to go to the department stores nearby; today's the only day I can really fit in some Christmas shopping and…" She looked at the children, and saw nothing but slight disappointment and weariness. "I tell you what," she tried again, "if you can come to the store with me – I'll try and be fast – then we can go look at the toys and you can think of more things to tell the real Santa."

The kids brightened, and with Sadie holding tight to Relena's hand, they set off out of the mall.

"Real Santa?" Heero murmured to Relena.

Her face hardened. "I told them how mall Santas work – the real Santa hires helpers, and so on…and I told them we could write the real Santa tonight after dinner." She paused, then suddenly hissed to him, "That guy was _such_ a jerk – I couldn't believe he would say things like that to – "

All of a sudden, she stopped. They had emerged from the mall, out into the wintry afternoon, and right in front of them was a very large, enraged man in sweatpants. He was yelling at the top of his lungs at the manager of the mall – whom Relena had spoke with just before entering that morning – and waving around a Santa hat. As they came out of the building, the man turned, and Relena noticed two things immediately: one, that it was the man who had been playing "Santa" inside, and two, that he had an enormous black-and-blue bruise decorating his left eye.

And amid the havoc that followed, where security had to come and restrain the man as he nearly charged Heero, and the reporters applauded, laughing, as the manager promised them they'd have a new Santa next year – Relena found Heero's eyes amidst the noise, and smiled. She didn't have to ask, and she didn't want to. She just settled for being grateful.


End file.
